Richard Moses, the organization’s president, said the L.E.S.P.I. is currently surveying buildings from St. Marks Place/Eighth Street to 12th Street, in the blocks on either side of the park, to determine which of them should be part of a proposal that will be submitted to the Landmarks Preservation Committee. The protected area, which would likely be called the Tompkins Square Historic District, would include Avenue B alongside the park, as well as the park itself.

“We don’t want to let the issue kind of fizzle out,” Mr. Moses said of the current preservation push. “We heard a lot of enthusiasm from the commissioners for the disrict the way it’s designated now, so we want to keep the momentum up and make sure that the other areas of the East Village that are intact get protected soon.”

Carolyn Radcliffe, vice president of the Preservation Initiative, recently took The Local for a walk in the area surrounding the historic park, to show off some buildings that might be included in the proposed district. (Watch the above video.)

“The park is the gateway area and includes Federal row houses, tenements, and the German Shooting Club, some of which are already designated as individual landmarks,” she said. “The Tompkins Square Park area is historically important, includes many intact buildings with cornices, lintels, fire escapes and should be protected.”

By the way, this isn’t the first time neighborhood preservation has been at the forefront. Last week another booster of the East Village/Lower East Side Historic District, the Greenwich Village Society for Historical Preservation, released a study examining the effects of a 2008 rezoning that “established height limits, reduced the allowable bulk of buildings on many sites, capped air rights transfers, and eliminated the zoning bonus for dormitories and hotels, as well as created incentives for the development and retention of affordable housing.” The study included the interesting graphic below, of recent development sites in the neighborhood. Click on it to read the entire study in PDF form.

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Hello, Neighbors

The Local was a journalistic collaboration designed to reflect the richness of the East Village, report on its issues and concerns, give voice to its people and create a space for our neighbors to tell stories about themselves. It was operated by the students and faculty of the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute at New York University, in collaboration with The New York Times, which provides supervision to ensure that the blog remains impartial, reporting-based, thorough and rooted in Times standards. Read more »